//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Their Knight of Scales // by Radiant Dawn //------------------------------// The days following mine and Twilight’s talk, and subsequent getting-together, were calm and monotonous, which was just fine with me; it meant mindless paperwork, spending time with my friends when I could, and in general, settling back into a more normal day-to-day routine again...save for a couple new things, of course. First of all, I had to keep on top of three new relationships I’d formed with Rarity, Twilight, and Lyla, the latter of which was honestly the easiest to maintain. While I was no master when it came to romance, I’d had enough experience to know the obvious “do’s and don’ts” to follow, as well as plenty of time spent in friendships with the three to help me keep from sticking my foot in my mouth. Still, other than offering more affection and support than before, things hadn’t really changed a whole lot, when it came right down to it: we still talked, laughed, and gave support to each other just like any other day, the only difference being me offering a goodbye kiss -- or changeling embrace, in Lyla’s case -- before we parted. Second of all, however, was the fact that I actually had a sit-down with all three girls and had a talk about what was going on between all of us, and where we would go from there. Initially, after Twilight found out Lyla and I had gotten together the night of our disagreement, there had been a great amount of tension between all of us, and Twilight even accused me of using Lyla as a substitute for her. Lyla, of course, took this as a challenge -- as per changeling culture norms -- and prepared to attack Twilight for the disrespect, transforming into her “true” battle-tested soldier form in the process. The sight of a six-limbed, scythe-clawed behemoth ready to do battle against an alicorn made me get between them and calm them down, which allowed the four of us to talk things out, with Rarity’s help to lubricate the whole process. At the end of the whole debacle, Twilight and Lyla apologized to each other, hugged it out, and promised each other they wouldn’t insult one another like that again. That being said, I still would have paid to see Twilight go toe-to-toe with Lyla, just to see who would win, but I kept that little piece of info to myself. For the most part, life had returned to some sense of normality, which meant plenty of paperwork and mindless errands -- though, honestly, I was quite happy with getting back to a routine; Ponyville was crazy enough with it being a veritable disaster-magnet, so I took what peace and quiet I could get. Of course, “routine” for me meant other things besides mundanity, unfortunately. ”Okay, and you want me to treat with a dragon as tall as the castle?” I clarified in utter disbelief, looking over the guard reports for the past week. Lieutenant Silverwing, a decidedly imposing pegasus guard from Canterlot, nodded firmly to me. “You’re the only one of its kind on ‘our side’, so we need your help. It’s smarter than the hydra pups you deal with from time to time, so-” “Exactly!” I interrupted, more than a little unease creeping into my tone. “Hydra pups aren’t smart enough to think anything but, ‘That’s a dragon; dragons are bad. Run away.’ This guy knows what we’re capable of, and he knows that, should he decide it, he could chomp me in one bite!” “She.” the lieutenant corrected. I stopped my tirade, staring at the guard in surprise. “...I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” “The dragon is a female.” he clarified, a hint of a grin crossing his otherwise stony features. “I’m sure you can find a way to persuade it to move along.” I glared at the guard, more offended than anything else by what he might be insinuating. “I’m not sure what you heard, but I’m not going to whore myself out for a job, let alone to someone ten times my size.” “Wait a minute,” Twilight suddenly broke in, “this doesn’t make sense. Dragons are generally shrewd creatures, and they know living near ponies tends to be more trouble than it’s worth.” With a snap of her fingers, she materialized a leatherbound journal from our time spent in the dragon lands, and began to flip through it. “...according to my notes, the only reason a dragon -- especially a female -- would encroach upon this territory would be because it was invited, or…” Twilight trailed off suddenly, her expression morphing to one of wide-eyed surprise as she brought the book over so I could read where she was pointing with her finger. Looking over the words, I gulped audibly and finished, “...or it could be searching for a mate.” Slowly, I rolled my eyes to Twilight, my mouth going dry. “Please tell me you sent out an invitation.” Twilight shook her head solemnly. “Let’s hope there’s another unknown male hanging around somewhere.” Lieutenant Silverwing removed his helmet, catching my attention as his shaggy, white mane billowed out behind him. He locked eyes with me as he explained, “I’m going to level with you: we need your help. We’ve done as much scouting as we safely could, but none of my teams have been able to get within shouting distance before she offered a threat display to warn us not to approach closer. We’ve been lucky so far, but sooner or later, some curious pony is going to get hurt, and we have to keep that from happening.” Pursing my lips, I took a deep breath and let out a long, exaggerated sigh, before nodding. “All right fine, I’ll see what I can do.” The lieutenant nodded before reaching into the satchel at his side, pulling out two scrolls. “This is everything we have from our scouts. From what we’ve seen, it has a small hoard of jewels and precious metals, but nothing that suggests it’s been there for long. We estimate it’s only been in the immediate area for a few months, at most.” He then lowered his voice and added, “To be honest, I didn’t think it was smart to involve a civilian, but Princess Luna advised you would be our best chance to avoid bloodshed, so here I am. Please prove my assumptions wrong, Sir Spike.” I understood his misgivings about the situation. Though the seven of us were known as national heroes, all but one of us had never had any sort of formal military training, and even Dash had only been trained for the Wonderbolts Rescue Squad. When it came right down to it, we were just regular people, but we were also regular people that had triumphed where others had failed, and learned from those experiences. True that none of us had ever been to war, but we were no strangers to tough situations. “I’ll do my best, Lieutenant.” I answered, reaching my hand and shaking his. After releasing my hand, he took a step back and turned, walking briskly out of the main hall of the castle. The doors closed behind us, and once again Twilight and I were alone in the castle. “So...that just happened.” I muttered to myself, looking down at the scrolls I still grasped in my left hand. Twilight took my free hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, which brought me to look at her as she frowned worriedly. “I don’t like this, Spike. I have a feeling this other dragon is here because of you, and I don’t know what’s going to happen because of it.” I quirked my brow at her statement. “I’m not going to elope with her, if that’s what you’re worried about.” She slapped my shoulder forcefully, her frown darkening. “Spike, I’m serious. You know as well as I do that most of your kind isn’t as nice as you are, and while she might listen to what you have to say rather than just attack you on sight, that doesn’t mean things will go well.” My face dropped into a look that would kill many pans...all the pans. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Twi. Feelin’ the love.” Twilight held my gaze for a few silent moments before she pulled herself to my chest, embracing me tightly as she let out a long sigh. “I don't mean to second-guess your abilities Spike, I just worry. And this time, I can't go with you, even if I wanted to.” I brought my arms around her body and gave her a firm squeeze, understanding what she meant: having any kind of support for my meeting would be like I was admitting to the dragon that I couldn't handle things on my own, and that could end...badly. I'd need to think like a dragon for the coming job, and that meant recognizing that certain actions on my part -- some of which were natural to me, due to my upbringing -- could be offensive. This was going to be harder than I thought. ”Faster, Spike!” Heeding the command, I tucked my wings tighter against my frame as I continued my dive, doing my best to keep a straight line as the air tore at me to try and throw me off course. The custom-made helmet I wore kept the wind out of my eyes, but if it weren’t for the charged audio gem within it, I wouldn’t have been able to hear Dash’s words due to the roar of the wind. As I reached the lowest part of my flight zone, I slowly began to open my wings, tilting them in such a way to translate my vertical velocity into horizontal, as I’d been trained to do, which meant I was cutting through the air only a few dozen feet above Ponyville’s rooftops, at a few hundred miles per hour. “Good...good job, Spike.” Dash’s praise crackled through the helmet’s comm system. “Now, I want you to do ten more runs to get it perfect, and we’ll call it a day.” Opting to conserve energy rather than respond, I banked and tilted skyward as I flapped my wings to get back to the my starting point a few thousand feet above the ground. Seeing as how Dash was an expert in all things flight, it made sense to be trained by her. Even so, I kept in mind that no matter how much I trained or how fast I became, she would always be a step above, simply because of who she was as a pony...but I was fine with that. For me, flight was more about the freedom and rush rather than the speed of it all, and control was every bit as important as raw speed in a life or death situation -- it was something we often found ourselves falling into, for one reason or another. Obviously, because of the unofficial task I’d been given, I wanted to be sure I was in peak physical condition and that my reflexes were on point, as I was unsure if a mere conversation with a dragon would explode into a fight. Dash was more than happy to help, thankfully, which was why I found myself doing repeated high-altitude dives to make the control of my wings at high speeds muscle-memory, instead of something I had to actively think about. There were a few hiccups here and there -- a midair spin and tumble among them -- but, on the whole, my practice went well, and Dash was pleased with my performance; flight wasn’t about perfection, after all, but rather the ability to quickly adapt to changes and see possible problems before they happened. Following my flight training was a brush up on multi-altitude combat, but, even with my larger frame and more powerful musculature, things didn’t quite go according to plan: to put it simply, I ended up with a bloody nose, a set of bruised ribs, and a new appreciation for agility and skill over raw power. Let it be said that even with Dash being known for her bravado and borderline-arrogance, she could walk the walk as well as she could talk the talk. With all that being the case, I wasn’t exactly feeling confident in my abilities. Even as a little whelp, I was more of a scholar than I ever was a fighter, dragon endurance and resilience notwithstanding, so fighting was never a part of my repertoire of skills. I could only hope that diplomacy and clever linguistics would win the day, as I wasn’t in any hurry to get into a fight with a grown dragon, regardless of the reason. … “So, what’s this job all about?” Dash asked as we sat together on a cloud overlooking the town. I shrugged, adjusting the icepack to more comfortably rest against my sore ribs. “Apparently some dragon shacked up nearby, so I’m supposed to convince it to go away.” Dash let out a whistle at that, kicking her hooves idly over the edge of the cloud. “Wow, that’s heavy. Did they tell you anything useful?” Those words soured my expression, much as I tried to keep it from doing so. “The guard told me it’s a female, so I might be able to find a way to convince it to leave without a fight.” It took a few moments for the implications to hit home, but when they did, Dash fell onto her back as loud, boisterous laughter bubbled up inside of her. I couldn’t help but grin despite the situation, pleased that, even with all the recent craziness, Dash was still Dash. “Y-you hehehehe…” Dash attempted to respond, but had to try again due to the fact that she was laughing so hard, “you got w-whored out by the royal guard?! Bwahahahaha!” A very small part of me wanted to be offended, but truthfully, Dash always had a way of making the ridiculous seem hilarious, and this was no exception. So, instead of rolling my eyes and crossing my arms with a frown, I ended up joining her in laughter for a few seconds, only for my aching ribs to remind me that laughter wasn’t a good idea at the moment. Nonetheless, Dash’s snorting laughter and giggles in response to my “mission” lightened my mood considerably, enough so that I didn’t feel so apprehensive about it anymore. I was going to require compensation of some sort, of course, but now I wasn’t 100% sure this was going to go badly. More like 65-74%. Definitely no more than 82%. Probably. “So Spike,” Dash chimed in, her voice teasing, yet free of laughter for the moment, “you excited about finally getting some dragon nookie?” At that I did roll my eyes, though I couldn’t stop the warmth that began to congregate in my cheeks. “A knight’s job is to slay dragons, not lay dragons.” Dash’s blank look prompted me to elaborate. “I was formally knighted by Cadence a few years after the Crystal City got things together as a modern city, which technically- you know what? Nevermind. No, I’m not going to bang a dragon the size of Twi’s castle. She could swallow me from both ends.” The latter part of my statement caused Dash to once again burst out in laughter, which again prompted a grin from me despite the situation. After a few more minutes of laughter, Dash began to compose herself as she panted with a stupid smile on her face. “N-no more, no more! It hurts! A-heh, hehehehe! I-it’s too much, I can’t take any more!” Maybe it was being around Dash that did it, but I found myself blurting out, “That’s what she said,” before I could stop myself. Of course, this brought forth another tsunami of belly-laughs from the pony at my side, and I could only hold the ice to my side and smile at the simple enjoyment of good times with a best friend. I flopped back onto the cloud, letting the cool and soft surface soothe my sore body into a state of relaxation as I bathed in the warm sunlight and cool breeze. I tuned out Dash’s giggles and simply enjoyed the moment of calm in my life, treasuring it for all it was worth; it wasn’t so often that I had moments in my day that I didn’t actually have something I should be doing, so I made sure to exploit the moment to the fullest. “You’ll be okay, Spike.” Dash’s voice floated in from my side. Turning my head to look at her, it was to see her large, magenta eyes focused squarely on me as she offered me a confident grin. “You’re a smart guy, and I know you’re going to figure out some way to get this job done the right way.” I returned her smile, even though I was still nervous. “I hope so. Besides the fact that I don’t want anypony to get hurt, it could look bad if a dragon hurts somepony when I live here. Much as I don’t want to think about it, I could wind up in a lot of trouble if I can’t handle this without incident.” Dash turned onto her side and propped her head up on her arm, her wings fluttering out behind her. “What do you mean? Everyone knows who you are, and it’s not like it’d be your fault.” I nodded, but still felt the need to explain. “Yeah, but if a dragon is the problem, all dragons are going to be blamed by scared ponies, and that means me.” I shrugged with a helpless, sad smile. “It’s not cool, but I know that’s what would happen, so this is as much for ponies as it is for me.” “Hey,” Dash softly called as she scooted closer and grabbed my hand in hers, “you know I’m always here for you, dude. If you think you’ll need help, I’m always willing to be your backup.” I smiled at her, glad for her support, but shook my head. “I appreciate it Dash -- truly, I do -- but it’s kind of a dragon rule that I have to do this alone. If you or anypony else were there with me, things could get really bad, really fast.” Dash looked like she wanted to argue, but, likely because she knew next to nothing about dragons other than me, she simply let out a long sigh and nodded her assent. “I don’t like it, but you would know better than me how this is supposed to go. Just…” Dash trailed off as she briefly glanced away, swallowing hard, “...just be careful, Spike.” I gave her hand a little squeeze before nodding to her. “I will be. I’m in no hurry to end up six feet under.” Dash nodded before pulling her hand away, her expression shifting to a playful smirk. “So, change of subject: how are things?” It took me a few moments to cotton on to what she was asking, and the wiggle of her brow helped things along, I’ll admit. I chuckled at her expression, but was happy she asked. “Things are going really well, actually. Twi and Lyla worked everything out pretty quickly, so now, we’re just enjoying the time we have together.” “I’ll bet you are.” Dash interjected with a lascivious grin. “Hey,” I shot back with a fake frown, “I’ll have you know that Rarity and Twilight haven’t done anything with me beyond kissing, thank you very much.” Dash raised her right brow at me, her smirk still present. “And Lyla?” Trying and failing to hide my smile, I answered, “She appears to be making up for lost time -- vigorously, and often. Why, are you jealous?” Snorting with a roll of her eyes, Dash shoved me with one of her wings. “Keep dreaming, loverdrake. You couldn’t keep up with me even if my wings were cut off and I had gout.” I always enjoyed the banter between Dash and I, but in some ways, I couldn’t really figure her out. I mean, sometimes she seemed to be outright flirting with me, but when I addressed it, she shut me down every time. On the other hand, she was clearly comfortable being around me, and had no issue showing affection with those she cared about, or at least not anymore. I’ll admit that I’d had a few fantasies about her swimming around in my noggin -- and, to my shame, even a few dreams -- but Dash had always been quite clear with the fact that she was out of my league. I mean, let’s face it: a scholar at heart getting with Equestria’s star athlete? It was ludicrous. Besides the fact that we didn’t share too many interests besides flying -- and with that, only a small bit on my side -- Dash preferred older stallions, and that was not me; even with my magical aging due to a spell gone wrong, Dash still had a good five years on me. So, with that all being the case, I admired her the way one would any unattainable desire: looking, but knowing I was not allowed to touch. It was a nice thought, though. As usual, my thoughts became rather chaotic in the time I had to think, so much so that I suddenly blurted out, “Do you think I’m greedy?” Dash had settled herself back down onto the cloud, eyes closed and head resting on her crossed arms as she lay on her stomach. Without opening her eyes she muttered, “Greedy about what? Be a little more specific.” “Mares.” I answered plainly, hoping I wouldn’t have to explain more than that. Luckily, Dash was quick on the uptake. She rolled over onto her side again, and opened her eyes to look at me carefully as she answered. “Look Spike, I know you’re always trying to be careful you don’t go nuts like you did on your birthday years ago,“ I cringed at that, but let her continue regardless, “but this isn’t the same. These girls love you for whatever reason, so it’s their choice just as much as it’s yours. If you really feel for them, and this isn’t just you wanting to sleep with your friends, then that’s what us ponies call love, not greed.” At my short snort from hearing Dash talk about love of all things, she shoved me again with her wing and nodded faintly. “Yeah yeah, I know I’m not really one to talk about all that mushy, gushy stuff, but even I’ve learned a few things over the years.” “Mushy gushy stuff, hm?” I echoed, just barely keeping from bursting out in laughter. “Are you sure you’re not secretly a 10 year-old virgin?” Instead of hitting me again like I’d expected, she just let out a long, slow breath as she watched me. “Y’done yet?” At my grinning nod, she continued her explanation. “All I’m trying to say is that it’s only ‘being greedy’ if you want what you haven’t earned, Spike, and I’ve seen you with all of them: you love them back just as much. Trust me, you’ve earned every bit of feels those girls have for you, so don’t worry that you’re asking for more than you deserve or some crap like that.” I had admitted to myself and others many times in the past that Dash had her moments of great insight from time to time, and this was one of those times. While I would always have to work to keep some of my more troublesome instincts in check, Dash’s words, plain as they were, had alleviated a lot of the pressure I had put on myself regarding my relationships with my mini-herd-thing, as well as my friendships that I’d held onto over the years. I had always worried that wanting something so much was a form of greed, but come to find out, I was misunderstanding my own desires. Dash and I sat for several minutes in complete silence after her words to me, likely enjoying the cool air, while I was reflecting on what had been said. Eventually, I had to voice my thoughts and feelings once again, simple gratitude though they were. “Hey Dash?” “Yeah?” “...thanks.” I felt as Dash’s primaries brushed along my side gently in a way I had seen her do with only a few others besides me. She was smiling at me warmly, the expression contrasting her often-brash personality as she answered, “You’re welcome, Spike.” She then glanced up at the orange sky and and pushed herself up to a sitting position. “C’mon, let’s get back home. It’s gonna get pretty chilly tonight, and I don’t want to be outside after the sun goes down if I don’t have to.” Shooting a grin my way, she added, “Up for a race to the castle?” I rolled my eyes as I sat up as well. “Besides the fact that I couldn’t keep up with you at full strength, my wings are pretty sore right now, and I’d rather not fall out of the sky like a fool.” Dash rolled her eyes with a playful grin. “Fine fine, I’ll fly you home you big baby.” “Why Dash, how sweet of you!” I commented in a falsetto voice that dripped snark. “Do I get a kiss goodnight, too?” Dash choked out a laugh before quickly composing herself. “Celestia, you do aim high, dontcha?” Rolling her eyes again and shaking her head she offered, “I’ll tell you what: the day you beat me in a fair race, one-on-one, I’ll Prench kiss you.” I hadn’t expected the wager, but hay, I wasn’t going to turn down a possible tongue-wrestling with one of Equestria’s hottest flanks. Besides, it wasn’t like I was ever going to win, but it was still fun to keep things interesting. So, reaching out my hand, I took hers and shook it firmly. “You know what? Yeah, I’ll take that little wager of yours; after all, it’s not like I even have to bet anything.” “Honestly,” she began, pulling her hand away and stretching her wings, “if you can find a way to win a fair race with me, you deserve to get a piece of this.” She punctuated the statement by running her hand through her hair and batting her eyelashes at me in a convincing imitation of a pinup model. She then chuckled and turned away. “Not like it’ll ever happen, but at the very least it’ll give you something to shoot for...and it’ll probably be pretty entertaining.” I shrugged and stretched my own wings, working my way through the sore twinges I got here and there. “Sometimes, miracles happen. If I recall, you and the girls have proven that quite a few times. Who knows: someday, you’ll get to experience how dexterous a dragon’s tongue is.” I demonstrated by sticking out my long, prehensile tongue and waving it through a few different motions before pulling it back in and smirking. Dash just stared at me for a moment, before grinning. “I’ll admit, that’s pretty impressive. Still, flopping a wet noodle around isn’t going to work for anyone, so good luck with that.” There were certain things I could say that would catch a mare’s attention if she were comparing dragons to ponies, but since I wasn’t really serious with Dash, I remained silent about it. Dash and I messed around with each other like this all the time, and I knew it was just Dash being who she was, so I left it at that. Let it just be said that dragons were different from ponies in quite a few ways, some of which simply didn’t make sense to said ponies. “C’mon Spike,” Dash chimed impatiently, “let’s go. Temperature’s starting to drop, and I’d like to be inside before it gets any cooler.” Nodding my head, I leaned forward and lazily tipped myself off the cloud, opening my wings to stabilize myself in a slow glide back toward the town. A second later, Dash was right beside me, and together, we flew toward the large crystalline castle. We were a relatively short distance away, so within only a minute or two, Dash and I were hovering by the balcony that led to the common area of the royal apartments. Upon landing, I felt a faint tingle of the tree’s magic flow through me, and the solid wall before us shimmered into an ornate door that led inside. A glance at Dash revealed her to be grinning at the minor spectacle. “Y’know, I don’t think I’ll ever get over how cool this thing is. Anyway,” she turned to me and pulled me into a firm, yet short embrace before backing away, “I’ll see you tomorrow. G’night, Spike.” “Goodnight, Dash.” I returned, smiling at her as she ascended and shot off toward her home in the distance. I watched her for a bit more until the failing light robbed my ability to follow any longer, then turned to the door and opened it, stepping inside with a long sigh of relief. Bringing the ice pack I’d been holding back over to my ribs, I made my way over to the cushy chaise lounge and fell onto it, groaning in contentment at the soft, cushiony embrace. Closing my eyes, I opted to just relax for a bit before doing anything else. “Welcome home.” Twilight’s voice greeted from off to the side, the clicks of her hooves approaching. “How was it?” I shrugged, repositioning my wings to more comfortably lay behind me before blowing out a long breath of air. “Tiring. I haven’t trained for real in quite some time, so I’m a little out of practice, and Dash doesn’t do training by half-measures.” I heard Twilight’s steps stop behind me just before her hands descended to my shoulders, rubbing firmly at the sore muscles there. True that she was no Aloe Blossom, but Twilight had read enough anatomy books in her life to know what she was doing, at the very least, and my groans of appreciation were proof of that. After a few minutes of Twilight tending to me, I commented, “Brains, beauty, and backrubs? You’re one hay of a catch, Twi.” I could practically feel Twilight’s blush, but she giggled nonetheless. “Just returning the favor that you’ve given me many times before. I’m not too good at it, but-” “It feels great, Twi. Thanks.” I interrupted, smiling widely. “So,” she began, her fingers trailing over my collar a bit, “any ideas on how you’re going to handle this job?” The mention of the clusterbuck I’d willingly crawled into made me frown, but I nodded regardless. “I have one so far, yeah. The end of this week is going to be the last warm day this year, so I’m going to go see the dragon then. I’m hoping that the warmer temperature will have her in a more cooperative mood, which means it’ll be less dangerous for me.” “Have I said before that I don’t like this?” I nodded again, moving the icepack away for the moment, as it was leaking on the furniture. “A few times, yes. I don’t like it either, but it’s either I handle it and reduce or eliminate collateral damage, or ponies get in there and probably get torched.” Twilight said nothing, but I knew her well enough to be able to predict her grudging acceptance of the whole thing. “I guess. I just wish there was another way.” She let out a long sigh of her own before pulling away, causing me to open my eyes and look at her. “Well, we’ll have to worry about that later. For now, I’ve got some Neighponese takeout for dinner, and you look and sound like you need some serious sleep.” I nodded and painstakingly pushed myself up, following Twilight to the kitchen. Overall, the day hadn’t been bad per se, but it was definitely stressful, and I could use some hot food and a good rest. I could only hope that the next day was more subdued than this one, or I’d need more than food and sleep. Maybe some gems -- gems would be nice. “Oh, and I got Pinkie to make a cheesecake for dessert, and I have some sapphire shavings for a garnish, for you.” Twilight advised from just ahead. I grinned wide at the thought; Twilight truly was sent by Faust herself.